Reeves and Hunt in fiery clash over public finance black hole: ‘How dare they?’

The chancellor has suggested the Conservatives “put party before country” as she blamed Liz Truss, Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt for a black hole in public finances.

Rachel Reeves told the House of Commons on Monday 29 July that the previous government “continued to make unfunded commitment after unfunded commitment, knowing that the money was not there”.

“The scale of this overspend is not sustainable. Not to act is simply not an option,” she added, saying the Tories “hid” the true extent of Treasury overspend from the public.

Her claim was met with a disgruntled look from Mr Hunt, the former chancellor.